According to The Encyclopedia of the Third World, the Fullah comprise 3.1 per cent of the population and are to be found in the North and East of the country (1992, 1714). A report published on the World Wide Web by the International Crisis Group, states that the Fulas are one of the two non-indigenous African ethnic groups of Sierra Leone (Apr. 1996). The Fula reportedly migrated from the north, particularly Guinea, and are devout Muslims. They are traditionally traders and craftsmen, also cattle herders, but engage in various types of wage labour (ibid.). Ethnologue corroborates this information and adds that in 1991 the Fula in Sierra Leone numbered about 178,400. "They speak the original Futa Jalon or the Kebu dialect," which "is intelligible with the Fula Peta of Guinea and with dialects of Guinea, Guinea Bissau, and Senegal. A slightly modified form of Futa Jalon is known as Krio Fula with many loans from Sierra Leone languages" (1996, 377).

No reports on the role of the Fula in the Sierra Leonean conflict could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please see the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Encyclopedia of the Third World. 1992. 4th ed. Vol. 1. Edited by George Thomas Kurian. New York: Facts on File.

Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 1996. 13th ed. Edited by Barbra F. Grimes. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

International Crisis Group. April 1996. "Sierra Leone: A Brief Overview." http://www.intel-crisi...jects/sierral/reports/slxxback.htm [Accessed: 02 Sept. 1999]

Africa Confidential [London]. June 1998-June 1999. Vols. 38-39.

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural Series [Oxford]. June 1998-December 1998. Vol. 35. Nos. 6-12.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 1998. 1999. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. June 1998-April 1999. Vols. 44-45.

West Africa [London]. June 1998-January 1999. Nos. 4192-4201.

Electronic sources: IRB Databases: Internet, REFWORLD, WNC.

Three oral sources consulted did not provide information on the requested subject.